Over 100 Maine farmers and landowners are developing 120-plus mw of community wind – that’s enough power for 39,000 homes. Community wind and landowners especially in the farming and forestry communities have a natural connection. This showcases Maine farmers’ ingenuity and leadership in not only providing food for our tables, but also stably-priced, home-grown electricity.
Making the investment to install a community wind project need not be cost-prohibitive. Thanks to mechanisms to promote smaller projects, Mainers can cost-effectively finance their projects by offsetting their electricity needs, and in some cases, offsetting excess generation. With net energy billing, for example, potential owners can get credit for (unused) power that is placed back onto the grid.
Small, medium, or large community wind projects can provide multiple benefits to their owners. Assuming reasonable wind speeds are available, small projects and medium-sized projects can provide the cheapest source of power for on-site generation needs. While there are upfront capital costs, these are paid off over time. Because wind turbines do not need any fuel, the only annual and long-term costs are maintenance and operational costs.
Large community wind projects can provide even broader benefits than just to the owners. Typically grid-tied, these commercial scale projects can provide long-term, fixed price contracts, which can benefit all of us in Maine. Examples from currently operating, corporate-owned projects demonstrate that wind power is already having positive impacts for Mainers in reducing the price of electricity that we all pay.
Learn more about community wind and net energy billing by contacting Windependence/Community Energy Partners at 207-751-0749.
“Community wind” means wind power generation that is owned by one or more local community members. That could be just about anyone or any entity – you, me, local farmers, woodlot owners, as well as towns, schools or small businesses. It can be any size or scale (single or multiple turbines), and on-land or offshore.
Community wind in the U.S. could offset the production of 34 million metric tons of CO2 per year–the equivalent of removing about 7 million cars from our roads, or taking eight large coal-fired power plants out of production–all while keeping the benefits, management and control to its local owners.
This material is based upon work supported by the NRCS, USDA, under #69-1218-2-2C. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the USDA.
